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Posted at 8:17 p.m., Monday, April 30, 2001
Radical leftist Aristide reportedly sold sumptuous home for U.S.$12 million to the state of Haiti
No one could ever imagine that a man who claims to be president of the Republic of Haiti would sell his vast and luxurious private residence to that Caribbean state, where he has caused an incalculable number of citizens to endure abject poverty. However, radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide reportedly has sold his sumptuous private residence in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Tabare for the exorbitant sum of U.S.$12 million.
Port-au-Prince Dominican Republic Consul is accused of issuing more than 49,000 visas, most of them at an inflated price, to Haitians Dominican Republic government officials accused last week their consul stationed in Haiti of issuing more than 49,000 entry-visas, most of them at inflated price, to Haitians traveling to that country, and all from the month of January to March 2001. The unusual number of entry-visas, according to Dominican Republic Chancellor, Hugo Tolentino Dipp, costs U.S.$150.00 each - U.S$100.00 more than what a valid visa costs. The Dominican Republic consul denied all charges made against him, and said that none of the evidence implicates him personally. He blamed Haitian bandits for issuing a large number of fake entry-visas, rather. A significant number of Haitians were arrested last week at the Dominican Republic-Haiti border by immigration officials and soldiers. They were all accused of trying to enter Dominican Republic territories with fraudulent documents. Only 35,324 of the Haitians who entered the Dominican Republic between the month of January and March 2001 have returned to Haiti, El Siglo, a major daily, reported Monday. "There is no limit at all to the number of Haitians who can enter the Dominican Republic with valid passports and visas. In fact, Haiti is a market for our country's goods and services," Dominican President Hipolito Mejia said Friday in a press statement. In another development, Dominican Republic Senate President, Ramon Albuquerque, said Friday in a conference at the Institute for Higher Military Education: "Haiti is a nation that has lost its chance to prosper economically because of perpetual political fighting, involving the leaders of that country." Added Senate President Albuquerque, "That country 'Haiti' has destroyed all of its natural resources, not maintained its infrastructures, and all that is left is fratricidal political fighting. The leaders are now fighting one another. They are trying to share political power, and none of them has a plan. To be honest with you who are in this room today I am having a hard time telling you what exactly they will get because their is really nothing to fight over. Even the political power that they are fighting over is meaningless." "That country is finished. It is gone." remarked Senate President Albuquerque, as his press conference progressed. "I understand it can be difficult, but there is a possibility that it can be implemented in Haiti, such as an economic plan modeled on those of the Western nations. That's the only way the Haitian economy will ever defy its never-healthy state," said Senate President Albuquerque, who happens to be a member of the Dominican Revolutionary party, at the end of his press conference.
Posted at 1:25 a.m., Friday, 27, 2001
U.S. President Bush to send a team of technicians to Haiti
To listen to Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia while he was holding a press conference for journalists in the country of the same name Tuesday, as Chilean President, Ricardo Largos, who was on a 24-hour visit there stood next to him, you could be forgiven for thinking that he also wanted historians to write him up as one of the persons who helped find a solution to Haiti's long political crisis. "During the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada I called on the United Nations and the highly industrialized countries, the very powerful countries, such as the United States, Canada and France to come to Haiti's help, at least, on a humanitarian basis," he said. Yet, in addition to explaining to President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien what the multiplying effect will be on his country, in case the long Haitian political crisis persists, what else did he tell them? "During a two-hour meeting in Quebec City, with U.S. President Georges W. Bush, his Secretary of State Collin Powell, my colleague Jean-Bertrand Aristide, including other Caribbean head of states and prime ministers, we expressed ourselves on the problem of extreme poverty in Haiti. The Haitians have two choices if a solution is not found to the long political crisis. Either they go to Florida or the Dominican Republic. I would prefer that they go to Florida. Already, my country has nearly one million of them, and this is a big social and economic cost for a poor nation like us." According to President Mejia, President Bush promised to send to Haiti in the days to come a team of technicians, and its purpose will be to evaluate and then draw a report on the social and economic problems in that country, including the Haitian populace basic needs. "When I talk about Haiti's problems I hope everybody understands that I am also talking about my problems," said President Mejia.
| "President Bush promised to send to Haiti in the days to come a team |
| of technicians, and its purpose will be to evaluate and then draw a |
| report on the social and economic problems in that country, |
| including the Haitian populace basic needs," Dominican |
| Republic President Hipolito Mejia |
President Mejia who sounded as if he no longer wanted death to be the price for Haitians defying extreme poverty by fleeing Haiti for the Dominican Republic and Florida on flimsy boats sounded very optimist that life will, in the near future, finally change for the better for the majority of them. "This time, I am very optimistic. I felt that I had achieved something fundamental after a well orchestrated campaign that bore fruits, such as the Haitian problem was taken into consideration, including the concerns we had for our own country." said President Meija at the end of his press conference, as Chilean president, Lagos, stood next to him.
Posted at 1:09 a.m., Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Radical leftist Aristide treated as a political pariah at the Summit of the Americas
Forty years ago or so, radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide did not seem destined at all to become president of the Republic of Haiti, in 1991. Nothing about his personal circumstances - his rural life, his voodoo priest father who died in a boat accident before he was born, and the abject poverty he long endured - foreshadowed that he would one day attend the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, which he only did in the capacity of a de facto president. At the Summit, which in 1956 was called the Presidential Summit, when it first brought leaders of 19 countries together under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Panama City, talks centered on trade and democracy in the Americas. Haiti, where radical leftist Aristide held a series of largely fraudulent elections last year, as he continued to kidnap, kill political opponents and supporters alike in broad daylight, was classified by the 33 leaders from the rest of the Americas participating in the Summit as a country with "special problems," suggesting that it was not a true democracy, and radical leftist Aristide was an obstacle to democracy. Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, who warmly embraced other leaders of the Americas, but timidly shook Aristide's hands, said in closing remarks Sunday "In some countries, for example Haiti, democracy remains fragile.We the leaders at this Summit, will send a fact-finding mission in Port-au-Prince later this year and pressed Mr. Aristide to act quickly to strengthen Haiti's democracy." Prime Minister Chretien's unpleasant words for leftist tyrant Aristide, however, came just a few days after U.S. President George W. Bush said during a visit at the OAS headquarters in Washington, D.C. during which he thanked the hemispheric organization's Assistant Secretary-General, Luigi Einaudi, for his efforts to help find a solution to Haiti's long political crisis, which began after radical leftist Aristide and his political godson Rene Preval held a series of largely fraudulent elections last year, giving their Lavalas Family party a monopoly (100%) in the Senate and absolute control (more than 80%) of the Chamber of Deputies and city halls. Most important was when President Bush said "he must return to the negotiation table, he must negotiate with the opposition," a reference to radical leftist Aristide, who the democratic opposition has refused to recognize as a legitimate president because of the clumsily fraudulent Nov. 26 election, which he claimed to win with nearly 92% of the votes, suggesting that unanimity would not be achieved if Haiti were were not a dictatorship of the proletariat. Hours after Prime Minister Chretien's words, reactions from many Haitians, who often accuse radical leftist Aristide of kidnapping, torturing, forcing into exile and burning their love ones alive, were remarkably unconstrained by anger, sadness, hope and demands for him to cease to be an obstacle to the cause of democracy in Haiti. "Remember our love ones he burned alive, he tortured, and forced into exile. Remember our love ones he tortured and raped," they said. He shattered our lives for ever. "We will welcome the arrival of such a delegation in Haiti, and believe it will certainly become a catalyst for the Caribbean country to finally become a democracy. But one of our demands, among many others, is that he be forced to permanently withdraw from the country's political affairs so he will no longer be an obstacle to the cause of democracy in our beloved small piece of land." But in a scene that seemed to resemble more like a boy trying to behave after being disciplined by his parents, radical leftist Aristide said Monday after returning to Haiti from the Summit "I love members of the opposition. My Lavalas government cannot achieve success without working conjointly with the opposition. I want to kiss the feet of opposition leaders, such as Evans Paul, Gerard Pierre Etienne, Victor Benoit, among many others. "The dictator had to be first disciplined, chastised at the Summit of the Americas to behave as he did to today. The presence of Aristide at the Summit was another way for Haiti to be further humiliated. He was not even allowed to speak at the Summit, as planned, but was, rather, severely blamed for his dictatorial habitudes," said Evans Paul on Radio, a democratic opposition leader, on Radio Vision 2000, in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The official declaration signed by the leaders, with the exception of Cuba' Fidel Castro who was not invited for instituting, implementing and consolidating a socialistic system of terror in his country since 1959, of the 34 nations Sunday, as the Summit came to an end, envisioned the economic union will embrace approximately 800 million people whose combined production of goods and services is estimated to be worth (current market value) $11.4 trillion - a third of the world total output. So, too, the 34 leaders committed their nations to respond to military coups or anti-democratic actions in the Americas. "Any unconstitutional alteration or interruption of the democratic order in a state of the hemisphere constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the participation of that state's government in the Summit of the Americas process,' says the official declaration. Certainly tyrant Aristide, who continues to apply his questionable fortune, which many believe to have mainly derived from the growing drug trade in Haiti, in the pursuit of additional dictatorial powers, was treated as a political pariah. If in the months or years to come he completely forgets that the 34 leaders, including himself, before parted company pledged equal support to democracy and free trade he will most likely be treated as such again. In the meantime, his bandits continue to rage war, raping, robbing, wounding and killing an innumerable number of peaceful citizens, in the Port-au-Prince despicable horrible slum of Cite Soleil. More than fifteen houses have so far succumbed to flames. In other parts of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, many citizens continue to be kidnapped. Some of them have regained their liberty only after their parents pay tens of thousands of dollars to his bandits as ransom. "War is the pursuit of politics by other means," the Prussian military theorist Clausewitz famously wrote.
Updated at 9:29 p.m., Friday, April 20, 2001
A few very unpleasant words from a Haitian democratic opposition leader for radical leftist Aristide
When only in dictatorships is unanimity attained in elections, as has been the case in Haiti, where radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide claimed to emerge as the president-elect, with nearly 92% of the votes, after a Nov. 26th election that was so clumsily fraudulent and as a result the democratic opposition has since refused to recognize him as a legitimate head of state, you can always expect advocates of human rights and democracy to have a few unpleasant words for you - even if you happen to be at the Miami International Airport. As radical leftist Aristide was at the Miami International Airport Thursday, about 6:30 p.m., en route to the Summit of the Americas, in Quebec City, where he will address presidents and Prime Ministers from the rest of the Americas, including invited guests, on the issue of "Cultural Diversity," which has nothing at all to do with his fellow Haitian compatriots, who continue to leave in abject poverty, and which he is largely responsible for, Mr. Samir Moura, a voluntary exiled Haitian democratic opposition leader and president of the newly founded Miami-based political party, "Patriotes Unis Pour Delivrer Haiti (United Patriots to Rescue Haiti), had a few unpleasant words for the Haitian notorious chief bandit and leftist totalitarian dictator. So surprised was he, including a few people who were with him, that they all visibly trembled. How did the political incident, which has been unanimously applauded by the Haitian democratic opposition, advocates of human rights and democracy, exactly happened? Thanks to a brief telephone interview Mr. Moura granted us today from his private residence in Miami we were able to obtain some first hand information, as you will find below, pertinent to the early Thursday evening political incident. Wehaitians.com: Is Mr. Samir Moura there? Mr. Moura: Speaking. Wehaitians.com: This is Yves A. Isidor calling from wehaitians.com for an interview. I heard that an incident took place early Thursday evening at the Miami International Airport between you and radical leftist Aristide. I want to write an article about it, and since I want to have first hand information before doing so can you please tell me exactly what happened? Mr. Moura: Sorry, I have to put you on hold. Wehaitians.com: Yves A. Isidor waited. Mr. Moura again: Hello! Wehaitians.com: We can now start the interview. Mr. Moura once again: Sorry, I have to put you on hold. Wehaitians.com: Oke! Mr. Moura: Just give a few seconds. Wehaitians.com: that's fine. Mr. Moura: I am still on a long distance telephone call. Can you call me back in five minutes? I have your number. I can call you back. Wehaitians.com: Oke! I will call you again in five minutes. Wehaitians.com again: This is Yves A. Isidor calling again from wehaitians.com. Mr. Moura: I am glad you called again. I have been so busy talking on the telephone. Wehaitians.com: May you please tell me what exactly happened Thursday evening? Mr. Moura: First, thank you for calling me. I have on many occasions visited Wehaitians.com.We inquired about when Aristide would arrive at the Miami International Airport. Late Thursday afternoon, we all went there to hold a picket-line, to protest his presence on U.S. soil, and voice our mecontentment about all of his dictatorial acts in Haiti. Wehaitians.com: This is the type of treatment that a tyrant, a leftist dictator like Aristide deserves. Good job! Keep up with the good job! Mr. Moura: Thank you! We were all in front of the Miami International Airport, and after waiting in vain for him to emerge from the airport building, where we were all standing, two us, including me Moura and Romana Saintil, went inside. There was Aristide walking, accompanied by two Secret Service Agents, including a few other persons. Right after seeing me those accompagnig Arisitide said to the Secret Service Agents that I was at the airport to cause trouble. First, one them asked me to produce my license and then asked me what I was at the airport for. I responded that I was there to exercise my constitutional rights. As he continued to talk to me I said let me have my license back if you really have nothing else to ask me. Anyway, you keep the license ... I have to ran ... I need to tell him what he does not want to hear. In the meantime, Romana Saintil was being questioned by a police officer. Then, I ran outside to a waiting-limousine that was to take to Aristide, his wife Mildred Trouillot-Aristide, including the Haitian Miami Consul to an undisclosed location. There, I was two feet away from Aristide. All television cameras were immediately turned on me. I said to Aristide, but in English, You criminal!You dictator! You assassin! You drug dealer! You drug dealer! You drug dealer you do not belong here on U.S. soil. The Americans do not want their tax moneys to be used to pay for the cost of security for a drug dealer, a dictator, a criminal, an assassin, a tyrant like you, who held a series of largely fraudulent elections." Wehaitians.com: How did Aristide react? Mr. Moura: So panicked were Aristide and companies that the waiting limousine sped away. Then we all left, including Romana Saintil, who was questioned earlier by a police officer inside the airport building." Wehaitians.com: Anything else you want to add? Mr. Moura: I heard that the police arrested me. I physically attacked Jean-Bertrand. Absolutely not true. I don't know where people got that from. First, after I had the opportunity to tell Aristide right in his face what he did not expect to hear we all went to Hotel Piedmont to find out if he were there. After we realized that he was not there we all then went to Hotel InterContinental. There we saw the same Secret Service Agents that we saw at the airport. Since we did not have a permit to demonstrate we went home and started calling the hotel. We asked the persons who answered the telephone how come you let a drug dealer like Aristide stay at such a prestigious hotel. Wehaitians.com: What did they say? Mr.Moura: Vague answers. Wehaitians.com: Anything else that you all did afterward? Mr. Moura: Since we knew Aristide registered at the hotel under the name of Augustin we repeatedly called the hotel, to be precise, all night long. We asked for Augustin. They transferred us to his room. He answered the telephone, and we told him what he did not want to hear. Wehaitians.com: What did the leftist tyrant say ... any reaction? Mr. Moura: Nothing at all. All he did was listening. In fact, I must tell you we called so many times that he stopped answering the telephone and turned the answering machine on. Still, we continued to call. Mr. Moura had to put us on hold more than twice during the telephone interview that lasted less than ten minutes because so many people, including journalists from the world over, he said, were calling him.
A complaint filed with the State of Florida calls for the arrest of radical leftist Aristide Dr. Gregoire Eugene, a Miami-based Haitian democratic opposition leader, filed a complaint with the State of Florida this week, asking authorities to take radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide away in handcuffs for drug trafficking while transiting in Miami, from the summit of the Americas, in Quebec City, Canada, to Haiti early next week.
Mob at work again in Haiti; five killed; bodies set on fire More than one hundred thieves, armed with machetes, sticks and pistols, attacked Friday, about 10 a.m., the compound that housed the transmitter of two radio stations, Radio Vision Nouvelle and Radio Lumiere, both with separate offices in the trash-filled capital city of Port-au-Prince, taking with them an estimated U.S.$200,000 worth of radio equipment. Felix Jean-Charles, 28, a Radio Lumiere security guard, was shot three times in the head, bringing the number of people - not including the 55 or so killed by radical leftist Jean-Bertrand Aristide's bandits in politically motivated violence - who have been killed by thieves to more 50 this month. Alcis Delce, also 28, but a security guard for Radio Vision Nouvelle, was wounded when he was slashed twice by a machete. Wilfrid Etelier, who said "in this anarchy, anything is possible, anyone can be killed anytime," was, too, a victim. He had his watch and tennis shoes stolen. Hours later, an enraged mob, armed with handguns and machetes, hunted down some of the presumed thieves, killing five of them, and then burned their bodies. A few hours later, not even one police officer could be found in the Drouillard section of Port-au-Prince, where the brutal killing of the security guard and those of the presumed thieves only followed the killing of an American, Alejandro Morales, on April 4th, among many others. As usual, for fear of being overwhelmed in an ambush. The latest incident came one day after police arrested a provincial mayor and four aids - all members of radical leftist Aristide's Lavalas Family party - on charges of torturing a judge during a streak of political violence. As we previously reported in this month journal, Dongot Joseph, the mayor who was arrested Thursday in Hinche, 45 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, tortured Feliton Gauthier, the judge, who hours earlier issued an arrest warrant for the arrest of four of his close supporters accused of stealing cows. The suspected cow thieves, who also participated in the beating of Judge Gautier, accused him of opposition supporter, a reference to Haiti's democratic opposition, which has refused to recognize radical leftist Aristide as president because of a series of largely fraudulent votes, including the Nov. 26th presidential election, held last year. On the same very exact day, Thursday, Luc Especa, a spokesperson for the de facto government of radical leftist Aristide said "fifty people, contrary to the 39 reported in March, died from eating the ackee fruit in the northern provinces." The fruit, which grows on an evergreen tree of the soapberry family, originated from West Africa. The latest death toll, which resulted from eating the ackee fruit, came after an exorbitant number of hungry citizens expired years earlier after consuming the fruit of the same name, including in 1991 when at least 10 people died. Not a surprise at all for us because "Haiti," said a recently UN report "is the third hungriest country, after Afghanistan and Somalia in the world."
Posted at 5:29 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Josephine Premice, Haitian-American actress, died April 13rd, aged 74
Seeing a large number of hungry, tired and dirty Haitian people disembarking on the coasts of Florida, most of the time after traveling on flimsy boats for nearly two weeks from Haiti, in search of economic opportunity, in search of political freedom, is what Haiti seems to be known for, as the average citizens of many countries from around the world often contend. Haiti may be a troubled nation, as we often call it, however, many of its citizen have often occupied positions of responsibility in the United States and elsewhere in the world and performed at a superior level. Josephine Premice, a first class U.S. actress who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 to Haitian parents, was one of them. Ms. Premice, who expired Friday, April 13 after suffering from emphysema, was nominated for Tony Awards for her performances in the musical "Jamaica" and "A Hand Is on the Gate," an evening of black poetry. Ms. Premice, whose married name was Fales, also starred on Broadway, from 1976 to 1977, in the musical "Bubbling Brown Sugar."